Tuesday, June 25, 2013

I was able to finally order a uke for myself. I got exactly the uke I wanted, the Lanikai LU-21, with a gig bag and a Fender tuner. It took three weeks to deliver, probably because it required international shipping. It came on June 19th, the day my grade had a photo shoot for the yearbook. I wanted to hold the ukulele for my photo but it arrived later than the shoot. Shame, it could have arrived just a few hours earlier.

I checked the package arrival list every half-hour. I was able to get it on my third trip to the dorm's main office. I was waddling the whole way to my room; the uke had protective double packaging and the box was very large.

The moment I tried to open it I was reminded of how important this was to me. I've been "mooning over" a ukulele for several years, and it took me the effort of making a cash card, finding a teacher who'll pay for my order with a Visa or MasterCard, and contacting the customs office to get this. So I decided to take some pictures, and here they are. (I also ordered a method book to learn how to play the uke and two books that are hard to find in Korea: "Freakonomics" and "That Book About Harvard.")

Books books books. I truly love nonfiction and memoirs.

This is the gig bag. I'm worried it wouldn't be enough to protect my uke...

I love how oblique this box looks xD

And yes. The uke. The Lanikai LU-21.

It looks so cute and perfect in my hand.

The uke lying in its gig bag. I'll have to get a hard case someday.

So in the few days after the uke's arrival I was able to learn how to play it. The "Ukulele Primer" book was a great help. The DVD that comes with it is very informative. The instructor in it (Bert Casey) a bit of the you-bother-me-and-you-die kind of look, but I think he is a good instructor. Now I can play and sing along to "He Has the Whole World in His Hands." It is very easy to learn. But I don't know a thing about musical theory, so if I want to play any song without searching ukulele tabs for it I'll have to learn music all over again. It will be hard work but I'm going to do it anyway. If I don't, having bought the ukulele will become all for naught.

As for the Lanikai LU-21 model, it's really cute(as you can see in the pictures). I especially like the color and the white binding. Its sound is very deep for a ukulele, which is one of the reasons I bought it. The sound is louder than what you’d expect from such a small instrument. For the first few days, it goes out of tune every few minutes but now it's completely fine. It actually holds tune quite well! I bought it for $85.92, and it turns out to have been a bargain.

I hope to post a video of myself playing it in the future, after I get better at it :)

About Me

age 15 (South Korea); I take pictures and play the ukulele in my free time. I take joy from the simpler aspects of life. If I find the time to go out and take pictures, to discover a good book, to learn a new song, or to see the sun setting, then that day is a good day to me.